Dallas County's homeless population is steadily rising. With no stable place to lay their heads, the homeless people have taken to the streets, a new normal that is disruptive to homeless residents and to the many business owners in Dallas and its surrounding cities.

Government has responded to this difficult problem in the most expensive and inhumane way imaginable: by jailing its homeless population through aggressive prosecutions for criminal trespass, a low-level misdemeanor that simply means being on someone else's property. The majority of these cases do not involve anyone's home, but rather gas stations, hospitals, malls and even DART stations.

Since 2015, Dallas County has prosecuted at least 9,394 people for criminal trespass, a low-level, nonviolent misdemeanor. Last year, approximately 25 percent of the people charged with criminal trespass were demonstrably homeless, meaning they told law enforcement that they had no address or lived at a homeless shelter at the time of arrest.

And 95 percent of the homeless people charged with criminal trespass last year were required to buy their freedom with a money bond, averaging $607, which almost none could pay. People who are unable to pay a money bond often plead guilty to be released from jail, and 89 percent of the of the homeless people charged with criminal trespass last year were convicted.

They did not get services or help; instead, they received an average jail sentence of 33 days.

Criminalizing poverty comes not only at a high moral cost but also at a significant financial cost. Since 2015, the county has doled out approximately 209,619 days in jail as sentences for criminal trespass. At a cost of about $55 a day, Dallas County has spent over $11 million just on locking up people charged with criminal trespass, to say nothing of the costs associated with churning these cases through the criminal justice bureaucracy.

Prosecuting someone for resting in front of a business takes time and man-hours; each case requires judges, prosecutors, defense attorneys, bailiffs and court reporters. As taxpayers, we all foot the bill.

And we are throwing good money after bad. These prosecutions do nothing to solve the problem of persistent homelessness. Defendants do not leave the Lew Sterrett Justice Center with new skills, new resources or a new apartment. Rather, the revolving door of jail exacerbates the conditions that lead to chronic instability; any progress a homeless person makes toward becoming housing-stable is erased each time he or she is arrested for sleeping at the train station.

It does not have to be this way. Progressive district attorney candidate John Creuzot has already pledged not to prosecute these cases of criminal trespass, which do not imperil anyone or their home, but merely reflect the utter lack of options so many homeless people face. Resources required for these meaningless incarcerations could be redirected into programs that work to address the underlying causes of poverty.

Dawaylon Raymond, 20, (right) drinks some donated coffee as Ryan Rule, 39, (left) and his wife, Deshonda Rule, 33, sleep on top of an exhaust vent next to The Stewpot on Park Avenue in downtown Dallas on Jan. 16, 2018, when temperatures fell into the teens throughout the night.

(Nathan Hunsinger/Staff Photographer)

For example, $11 million could purchase and fund operations of a new homeless assistance center providing homeless residents with a place to sleep that is safe and clean, and does not interfere with the operation of local businesses. The money also could be invested in more housing-first programs, which focus on mental health and addiction and have been credited with reducing Utah's homeless population by 91 percent.

We must stop criminally punishing people who pose no threat and whose only crime is attempting to survive without adequate shelter or resources. That's not what our jails and courts are intended to do. It's time to find more a sensible, humane solution.

Philip Kingston is a member of the Dallas City Council and vice chair of the Public Safety and Criminal Justice Committee.

Mark Clayton is a member of the Dallas City Council and chair of the Poverty Task Force.